Marisol was used to planes. She was not some frequent flyer, but once every year or two, she took a trip with her mother to visit family in Florida. Those trips were usually a week long and at the end of that week, she would stop being a guest and return to being a resident Californian.

The flight Marisol was on was different. She was on the plane without her mother on the way to New York. When she took her first steps out of the airport, things would be different. Things already felt different, like she left her Californian citizenship at LAX. Thousands of feet in the air, Marisol was just a lone teenage girl in transit, but once she landed, gathered her luggage, and hit the pavement, she would be a resident of New York City.

Of course, she would still visit Long Beach and her mother whenever she found the opportunity, but she was committed to living the next few years in New York City to pursue her education and her big stage dreams. She would never rule out a return to California one day, but her immediate future was too important to plan beyond.

It was a big leap, and she was equal parts excited and terrified. She was in a new city, starting fresh and thousands of miles from her mother. She kept feeling the disheartening sensation that she was going it alone, but she always reminded herself that was not quite true.

Her Tío Jorge was going to be waiting for her at the airport so she had a ride to her dorm building. Knowing that was an entirely different brand of excitement. For years, the family was led to believe her uncle had passed away as an unfortunate consequence of his mutation. Marisol and her mother took the news poorly because, despite the distance between them, Jayda and Jorge loved each other and Jorge became Marisol’s favorite relative, (with the obvious exception of her mother.)

When they found out within the last year or so that Jorge was discovered alive, recovering from his experience, Jayda was quick to visit him. A combination of financial and school reasons kept Marisol from making the trip with her, but she was going to be living in New York now! Not only was she going to see a man she had been missing since her preteens, she would be able to visit him without an absurdly expensive plane ticket! He would instead be an inconveniently expensive Uber ride away, which was a welcome change.

The plane touched down and Marisol was one of the quickest people out of her seat, much to the chagrin of some of the less enthusiastic travelers. She grabbed her carry-on, walked through the ramp to the airport, and navigated JFK with signs until she got to the luggage carousel. She stood in hip-hugger jeans and an off the shoulder top, leaning against one large piece of luggage as she waited for her second one to come around.

As she waited, she looked around the crowd of people waiting near her. JFK was no small airport and the baggage claim was outside the gates, so travelers and the people waiting for them were all able to congregate. Marisol should have been paying more attention for her suitcase, but she could stop scanning the crowds. Her uncle was somewhere close, as was the start of her new life, and she was brimming with excitement.

This was actually going to be quite different. The last time that Jorge lived in the same city with any family members had been...years ago, probably before he moved to New York. He had visited, and they him, over the years, but to actually have blood living in the same city again -- it was going to be a bit of a challenge. Of course that wasn’t to say he didn’t care for it; if anything Jorge was enamoured with the idea. It was just the fact that young woman who would be staying in the city was none other than his youngest niece, Marisol and so while he loved it, he also could feel a sense of overprotection beginning to emit from his body.

Jorge had seen a lot of stuff happen in New York. A lot of weird things. On top of it all, he had seen a lot of good people get hurt...or worse. He didn’t want his niece to end up as another statistic, but that was being unfair. He couldn’t watch over her her entire time here, he had to trust that Jayda put a smart head on her shoulders and, knowing his sister, she wouldn’t have sent her here by herself unless she knew she could manage.

Making it to JFK in time was easy, it was fighting through the crowds that was the most annoying. Showing up at least an hour early, Jorge moved through line after line, check after check, and bore it all with a patient smile and a nod. Dressed in simple dark jeans, a black t-shirt with his favorite brown bomber jacket over it, the man clearly blended in with the crowd of people who all milled around, trying to get from point A to point B. Still, even as people bumped into him and at least one stepped on his foot, the man bore it all because he knew this would be a good day.

Finally, popping out of the thick throng of people, Jorge sighed and shook his head. Brushing his hand down his salt-and-pepper beard, the detective looked around to find which gate he was at. He been trying to follow the signs of but traffic of people made it difficult to maintain the course. Thankfully, where he stepped out, just so happened to be at the exact place he needed to be. Now came the tedious task of finding his niece.

His water senses going haywire with all the people around, Jorge winced as he tried to shake it off and just focus on his eyesight, looking for the familiar brown hair and face of his niece. It had been a few years since he had actually seen her face to face. Hell, she was probably no more than eleven or twelve. After his...incident...Jorge lost a lot of time. When he came back, his family was the first notified but only Jayda could make the trip out to see him. She was all tears and smiles, happy to see her brother alive again and Jorge was just as pleased to see her. Jayda had given him a picture of Marisol but she hardly looked like the little tween that he remembered seeing last. Now, lord, she was seventeen and aside from a few email exchanges and phone calls (she kept trying to get him to Scype but, not knowing what they meant, he claimed it was against his religion) Jorge hadn’t really seen her in years. God he hoped he recognized her.

Peering through the crowd, at first Jorge couldn’t catch sight of anyone. However he elected to stay close to baggage pick up the plane had already completely disembarked. Slowly he started to pace, turning to the left and right, watching every younger face that passed by or any hint of recognition. He was certain that someone probably thought he was being a creep but it was far from that. Thankfully, when he eyes caught the glance of a young woman as she looked away from the baggage chute, he saw that hint of his sister’s eyes in her. He sighed...and then cringed; wow, she was much older than the last time he saw her.

He glanced down at the silver gift bag with the large blue whale in it and suddenly felt a little self-conscious. He hopped that the next time he bought her something that he was more on the mark than he was today. But he needed to push past any such embarrassment and approached teenager. She still hadn’t see him so he managed to get close enough to surprise.

”Excuse me, Miss,” he spoke in an authoritative voice. ”You wouldn’t happen to have seen a young girl, pip-squeak really, with a bad habit of buying bunny stickers around here?”

Marisol was lost in her world of thoughts, trying to prove to herself that she was experiencing something real. It was hard to believe she was not dreaming. She was in New York. She was going to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. She was going to see her uncle again. Everything sounded too good to be true and she was convinced she would blink and wake up in her Long Beach bed, getting ready for another school year in California.

As she dreamily looked around at the crowds, Marisol let out a, ”Yeep!” as a commanding voice spoke behind her. It was not an atypical reaction when she realized she was dealing with people. Her shock subsided when the voice started sinking in, and by the time he was calling her a pip-squeak and poking fun at her childhood obsession with bunnies, Marisol had already turned to see her uncle with her own eyes.

He looked just like how she remembered him, maybe with more greys peppered across his dark hair. He was tall and imposing, even as he approached fifty. He was the kind of man criminals would not want to cross, but Marisol knew, behind his gruff exterior, he was a teddy bear of a man and the best uncle in the world—in her entirely unbiased opinion.

He was also a miracle. Marisol had accepted years earlier that her life was just going to be a darker place without Jorge. As happy as she was to find out about her acceptance to her new school, no call gave her greater joy than the one that let them know he was alive. Her eyes were already welling with tears and she could not break her smile. The feelings were overflowing in her chest until she could not take it and flung her arms over the man’s shoulders, taking her off her feet.

”I haven’t even bought bunny stickers in years,” she muttered jokingly through her tears. ”Like, at least two.” She had a binder that needed to be decorated with more than just drawings of ballet shoes!

She lingered on the hug, content with the very real presence of her uncle that finally assured her that, yes, she was not just dreaming. Marisol finally planted a kiss on Jorge’s scruffy cheek and slowly slipped back to the floor and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. ”Tío, it’s really, really good to see you again.”

Jorge smiled as he looked down to his niece, unable to stop the smile that appeared on his lips. It had been years, years since he had last seen her. She had grown up so much, so many years of life that he had missed. Even though they never lived in the same state, it wasn’t as if they were total strangers. They still met for holidays, Jorge flew in for events in her life, and so on, they were active presences in one another’s lives. The last few years, though, they certainly weren’t since the world, and his family, thought that he was dead.

As she whipped around to look at him, he smiled at the smile she gave him. Then the tears started in her eyes and Jorge could feel his own welling up. He opened his mouth to say something new but was stopped by the suddenly body flinging herself at him. He stopped, chuckled, wrapping his arms around her as she clung onto his neck. A bit of a laugh on his lips, he lifted her up, holding her to his chest as the two of them just hugged.

This was just another reminder why he fought so far to come back from the brink. She may have moved on with her life and he did risk her having to learn of his death again (especially considering his job and his age), but all that mattered was the now.

The hug only slackened slightly when Marisol finally answered his questions, commenting about the her obsession with bunnies.

>> ”I haven’t even bought bunny stickers in years…Like, at least two.”

He laughed heartily at that, squeezing her tighter to him before he finally started to loosen his grip and set her down on her two feet. The both of them took a second to compose themselves before they even dared to open their mouths again. He used the time to give her a once over, continuously surprised by how much she’s grown up. It was a little sad that he missed so much, but, still, he was happy to at least have some of that time again.

>>”Tío, it’s really, really good to see you again.”

He sighed, quelling any tears he may have shed, and just smiled in response. ”Yeah,” he breathed. ”You are such a sight for sore eyes. You just shot up, didn’t you?” he joked. ”You’ll be taller than tu madre before you know it.”

He laughed. Jayda forever suffered from short person syndrome but, still, she could pack a wallop. It was best to tease her about that when she wasn’t around. He sighed, suddenly remembering the weight in his hand. A glance down and he grumbled a little as he held up the bag towards her.

”Uhhh, I-I got you a little ‘Welcome to New York’ gift…” he said, holding it out to her, but immediately amended the offer. ”If it’s too kidsy, you know, that’s fine. I’ll get you something more grown up. Tax forms?” A teasing smile.

Marisol was not as naïve as she sometimes seemed in social situations. She was well-aware of the career her uncle chose and the risks that came along with it. After losing her uncle once, it would be heart-breaking to deal with it a second time, but she had to focus on the here and now. Her uncle was back in her life, and she was going to get to spend more time with a man she thought she would never see again. If there was a cloud higher than cloud nine, she was on it.

The young woman was not the only one clearly feeling a wealth of emotions. Jorge was brushing away his own tears, taking in the new person that the little girl grew into. Jorge vanished as Marisol was hitting puberty. The girl he knew had yet to come close to five-feet-tall, and she had not grown into the slender, curvy figure of a young woman. He joked about Marisol growing past her mother, but it was barely a joke. Marisol and Jayda stood at an almost even height, and Marisol still likely had an inch or two left to gain before she reached adulthood. ”Don’t tell her that,” she warned her uncle with a grin. ”She might fly here to give you a punch in the arm.” Her mother was widely regarded as quite the spitfire, which was ironic considering her brother’s gifts.

And speaking of gifts, Jorge offered a small bag, but seemed to hesitate and pull it back. Marisol reached for the bag and took it gladly, curious what Jorge had bought for her. She pulled out a stuffed whale with a spherical body. It was true, she did not have stuffed-animals anymore, but it was mostly a matter of fitting her clothes and belongings in suitcases. There was no rule saying a teenager could not have a stuffed animal companion, particularly when it was a gift from someone significant in her life.

Marisol squeezed the whale into a hug, looking up happily to her uncle. ”I love it. Way better than tax forms and perfectly appropriate from the man who taught me to swim,” she teased. Marisol loved the water and Jorge was a big part of that love, teaching the girl at a young age how to swim so she could really appreciate her coastal home.

It felt good to hug his niece. Admittedly, while drifting amongst the waves, her image flashed through his head of those people he lamented never seeing again. Of course the last time he had seen her, she was a tween and not at all the teenager who was now here, her arms wrapped around his neck. He sighed, just savoring the fact that he could be around his family again, momentarily remembering just how close he had come to being gone from their lives forever. It was a trauma that Jorge, for as much as he tried, still needed time to get over.

But there would be time enough for that later. Right now he just wanted to focus on the fact that his niece was here and that she was going to be a part of his life. Of course she still had school and her own thing that she would be doing while in the city, but part of the negotiation with allowing her to come to school out here was that there would be alotted time that she spent with her uncle. Not an extremely obsessive amount (Jorge managed to talk Jayda out of that) but just enough to at least check in with him.

Any other times she wanted to spend with the detective, well, that would be for the two of them to figure out.

>> ”Don’t tell her that...She might fly here to give you a punch in the arm.”

Jorge teased the young teen about how quickly she was growing up, and the fact that she would soon end up taller than her mom. He loved his sister but she definitely had a case of the short-person syndrome. She would fight any and all people who would dare call her short, making sure to make them bruise in the process. Jorge had been on the receiving end of those punches for various reasons over the years and she could still pack a wallop.

”Then it’s a good thing I’m telling you and you won’t say anything.” He grinned.

Handing over the present to her, he did feel a little silly. It was the gift for someone far younger than the teenager standing in front of him. Then again, the last he had seen the young girl face to face, she was still young enough to collect them. But, watching her take it from his hand, he did off the alternative of a more grown up gift, if that was what she wanted.

>>”I love it. Way better than tax forms and perfectly appropriate from the man who taught me to swim,”

He grinned. Marisol was always the sweetest member of the Cervantes clan. Where she got it from, Jorge would never be able to understand. Jayde was nice in her own way, but she was very much not the type of woman you would expect to raise a bunny-loving ballerina. Still, Jayda did an excellent job of raising her; Jorge would always believe that. Happy she enjoyed the gift he nodded his head as he gestured to the baggage claim.

”Are you waiting for more?” he asked. ”What does it look like?”

Marisol kept her new fluffy friend cradled in her arms as her uncle reminded her to keep his comments to herself and away from her mother’s ears. The young woman always enjoyed the dynamic between her mother and Jorge. The two loved one another, but it was the kind of love where you tease and bicker and it is all good nature. It was enough to almost wish Marisol was not an only child. Almost. ”My lips are sealed, Tío,” she replied with a wide grin.

With their reintroduction out of the way, Jorge brought Marisol’s attention back to something she almost forgot about. ”Huh? Oh, right! My suitcase.” Their reunion was sweet, but Marisol wanted to know more of New York than its airport. She looked back at the conveyor belt carrying luggage around the carousel. ”It’s purple with a black handle, about yea tall,” she said, holding her hand about three feet off the ground. ”I tied a green ribbon to the handle to make it easier to find.”

As she watched black, blue, and red suitcases passed by, wondering how long she would have to wait to see her own bag pass by. Excitement was starting to mount as everything was suddenly more real than it had been on the plane. She looked down at her outfit, wondering what she could expect in terms of weather. She was on the East Coast now, so she was warned there would be more variety than she was used to in California. ”How’s the weather outside, anyway? I came dressed for Summer weather, so I hope it’s still a little bit Summery out.” She knew it was not raining, which was a good start; she did not want to start her New York life amidst a rainstorm. They were getting ready to enter September, so she thought it was a safe bet to assume the weather would still be warm, but she had to accept she was in uncharted territory.

Now that the reunion was over, Jorge was glad to get this show on the road. There was so much to see in New York, so much time to make up for, and with her starting school fairly soon, the detective was going to have to make as much time as he could muster for the young woman. However, as their emotions began to wane and the reality of having her here became more and more familiar, the man found himself noticing something rather odd -- something he didn’t immediately catch onto before.

It had been a long time since Jorge last felt...for lack of a better term...nothing. Whenever he was out in the city, or in any place that was crowded or Metropolitan, he could feel it, the flow of water everywhere. He could sense it in the pipes that ran through the ceilings, walls, and floors, he could sense large bodies of it in nearby pools or running through gutters. And, more recently, he could feel it in people. But now...nothing and the only time he usually felt like that was when he was with Gemma. Interesting.

>>”Huh? Oh, right! My suitcase...It’s purple with a black handle, about yea tall. I tied a green ribbon to the handle to make it easier to find.”

”Uh-huh…” he said a bit mindlessly, knowing that Marisol said something about her last suitcase but only catching part of it.

He rose his head and began to turn, looking to see if maybe there was an adapted nearby. He didn’t know many of them, only Gemma, really, and he knew of that librarian guy who went to the mansion and spoke with her, Booker. Other than those two, adapteds were kind of a rarity. The problem was that there were far too many people here for him to get a clear bead on who the adapted was. It made the most sense but as he took a few steps back from Marisol, trying his hand to see if he could step out of their reach, he found that there were just too many people coming and going to collect their luggage.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his niece, turning to face him as she gestured to her attire. Quickly he put his head back into the conversation...

>>”How’s the weather outside, anyway? I came dressed for Summer weather, so I hope it’s still a little bit Summery out.”

”Oh, it’s still pretty warm,” he replied. ”But Fall is right around the corner so you can start catching some of that coolness in the air.” Looking off to the side, he spotted a green ribbon tied around a handle and he recalled her saying that she had done that to make it visible. Reaching over, he plucked up the luggage and handed it over to his niece with a smile, but not before tilting a little at the weight of it. ”Jesus, did you pack the whole of Long Beach in there?” He then grinned. ”Or did you mother stow away?”

Jorge was distracted by something, but Marisol was oblivious to her uncle’s pensive behavior. Her mind was preoccupied with hyping her up for all the changes she had in her future. She was going to live in a dorm! She had a roommate waiting for her! Marisol had been messaging back and forth with Reagan, a fellow dancer she was going to be sharing a small dorm room with. That would be a unique change for an only child who was used to having her own space.

There were so many things on her mind, it was nice to be reassured she was dressed in a weather-appropriate way. Warm with some early Fall coolness was the best forecast she could have asked for: something cooler than West Coast, but not cold enough to make her shiver. ”Perfect ‘new life starting’ weather,” she replied with giddy anticipation.

It was fortunate having her uncle with her, because he was focused enough not to miss a green ribbon on the carousel. He had more reach and strength than she did, so he effortlessly pulled it off the belt and wheeled it over to its owner. It was a kind gesture, but not kind enough to keep her from scoffing at her uncle’s judgment. ”First of all, if she snuck in there while my stuff was being sent to cargo, that’s impressive.” To be fair, if anyone would, her mother was high on the list.

Still teasingly indignant, she continued, ”I am moving here. It’s not like I can leave my stuff back hom—in Long Beach.” Woah. That was an oddly bittersweet feeling. She was excited to embrace her new home of New York City, but Marisol was finally realizing that, at least for the foreseeable future, California was not going to be home. That left a funny feeling in her stomach.

If she wanted to move past those funny feelings, the only way was to move forward. ”Okay, Tío, I think I’m ready to go.” She grabbed the handles of her suitcases and followed Jorge away from the crowds to the exit that would lead them to the area for pick-up parking. The doors opened as she stepped on the pad leading up to them and a breeze sent a ripple through her hair as she felt the New York sun for the first time. (Well, as an official New York Resident, at least.)

Marisol turned her head to her uncle and smirked. ”It doesn’t smell as bad as mi madre said.”

Jorge was only slightly distracted by the fact that he could sense an adapted nearby. It wasn’t so much because he was interested in them, but more because they were so rare to come across that it was a surprise whenever he found one. So far he only knew about his bride-to-be, Gemma, and that was it. Of course there was always the notion that he could be mistaken but judging by the fact that his water senses never faltered, it was highly unlikely.

Marisol brought him back to the moment as began to ask about the weather. Honestly the weather was good right now, he was happy to report, and his niece seemed spurred on by that. However it was the sight of her luggage that pulled his attention back to the baggage claim. Snatching it up off the carousel, he joked as he lifted the heavy thing that she either had the whole of Long Beach in her back or her mother stowed away in an attempt to ensure that Mari made it safe.

His sister was short enough, after all.

>”First of all, if she snuck in there while my stuff was being sent to cargo, that’s impressive...I am moving here. It’s not like I can leave my stuff back hom—in Long Beach.”

He gave her a soft smile. It seemed to only now be sinking in that she was in a new place that she would have to call home. Forgetting the nearby adapted, Jorge stepped closer to his niece and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. It was a feeling that he was familiar with, trying to call a new place home. Hell, he did it when he first came to New York. But Mari was so young, so full of adventure, that he had a feeling that she was going to adapt just fine.

Leaning down he planted a kiss on the top of her head. ”You’ll do fine, Mari,” he reassured her, giving her a comforting smile. ”It’ll be easier to say with each day.” Another hug and he released her, taking one of her bags so that she wasn’t ladened by her own luggage the whole way out of the airport.

>>”Okay, Tío, I think I’m ready to go”

Jorge nodded as he picked up the luggage and began to lead his niece out of the airport. The trip was remarkably short, with the pair of them only having to go through a few check points. It helped that the two of them conversed more as they walked through the airport, making the time go just that much faster. By the time that they made it outside, it was a welcome breath of relief to escape the throng of people, though they still seemed to be everywhere.

>>”It doesn’t smell as bad as mi madre said.”

Jorge smirked as he stepped back, allowing Mari to take in the sights and scents of New York. Of course the first comment out of her mouth was only something that his sister would say, making the older detective chuckle good naturedly. He shook his head as she placed his hand on his niece’s shoulder to steer her towards a nearby terminal where they could wait for a tram to take them to the parking lot where his car was waiting.

”Tu madre...doesn’t always care for New York,” he said with a chuckle. ”But I’m hoping that you will make good memories while you are here.” His hand moved to her back as he steered her towards the terminal where they could wait for the tram. ”Come on. Once we get to my car, how my I take you get some real New York food? Or do you need to go to your dorm right away?”

He smiled as he waited for her to answer. However, there was one thing he did notice -- he still didn’t have his water senses. There were significantly fewer people around so he was understandably...confused. Huh....

Marisol was lucky enough to have an uncle who seemed to understand her. She did not want to voice her anxiety and the initial impressions of homesickness, but Jorge understood what was on her mind anyway. The Cervantes family was never the most sedentary. The whole family moved to Florida, Jorge moved to New York, and Marisol’s mother moved back to Long Beach. It was Marisol’s turn to move her life to a new place and start fresh, and she wondered if every Cervantes before her was just as scared of the change.

A strong arm wrapped around Marisol for a hug, followed by a soft kiss on the top of her head. The two acts of familial affection were enough to ease a lot of the tension in Marisol’s stomach. She was strong like her mother and her uncle, and she was going to take New York by storm. Like Jorge said, it was just the first day, and life would get more normal once she had more days in the city under her belt.

Jorge also understood Marisol’s mother. She did not hate New York, but she certainly would never consider living in the big city. Marisol could not count on one hand the number of times she was asked if she was sure she really wanted to move out to the East Coast.

Marisol was excited to move into her new dorm, but the process would not be long. Beyond clothes and some small touches of home, she was not bringing a lot into the new space. She was in no rush to part ways with her uncle, so dinner sounded like a great way to celebrate her arrival. ”I can totally do food first! But… I mean, I’m trying to eat healthy for dancing and stuff.” She wondered if “real New York food” was healthy, or if it would be something greasy and savory. She was always inclined to behave, but it was her first day. ”You know what? I can get back to healthy eating tomorrow. Today’s a big day, right?” she asked, sporting an excited smile.

The uncle and niece stepped into the tram when it arrived, and Marisol breathed a sigh of relief when she realized they had the good fortune of a quiet car. She was ready to be done with big crowds for the day. ”Nice, there’s barely anyone on hear. Which reminds me, how is your fiancée? And little Chase? I’m really excited to meet mi primo.” She remembered her uncle adopting a son years earlier, but after the incident, Marisol was unsure if it would be insensitive to still reach out. Chase was younger than her by a few years, and after growing up an only child, Marisol was excited to have a younger relative to spend time with.

The people started to thin and already Jorge was beginning to understand something that, for the most part, he wasn’t sure how to deal with. It seemed that there may be something more about his little nice than she was telling them. Of course she could simply not know, but with every step towards the tram, every person who left their little field of influence, Jorge began to put pieces together, pieces that, to be quite honest, he wasn’t sure how to address.

There was a moment where the both of them had stepped far enough away that they were clear on all sides from people; and in that moment Jorge still couldn’t get any of the water sense that he was used to. It was exactly like being in Gemma’s adapted bubble, a space in which his abilities were completely turned off, where any mutant’s abilities were turned off. Truly it was a face that was just a tad surprising. Was his niece really an adapted?

Jorge let the thought momentarily distract him, losing himself in the implications of it, when he chimed in again on Marisol talking. Really he needed to stop that or he was going to end up offended the young girl. Besides, this didn’t change anything. He was still her uncle, she was still his niece, and they were still family. If she was an adapted, then so what? She would have to be educated, of course, but it was a good thing that his fiance was definitely experienced in the field.

So Jorge chimed in, inquiring if she wanted food. Food always made everything better...

>>”I can totally do food first! But… I mean, I’m trying to eat healthy for dancing and stuff..You know what? I can get back to healthy eating tomorrow. Today’s a big day, right?”

He smirked before he shook his head in a chuckle. They climbed into the tram and claimed seats in the near empty vehicle as it took them to the parking lot. ”The biggest. The same goes for the pizza place I’m taking you to.” He grinned. Pizza was kryptonite to teenagers, as far as his experience taught him. Even if she were trying to maintain her diet, the mention of it would have probably made her break that vow then and there. ”And it’s just one slice. Trust me, in New York, that’s all you’ll need.”

>>”Nice, there’s barely anyone on hear. Which reminds me, how is your fiancée? And little Chase? I’m really excited to meet mi primo.”

He chuckled. ”There all good. Gemma is getting ready for the wedding. I’m helping out as much as I can but best to side step when she’s in planning mode.” A smirk on his lips. ”We’re both enjoying it, though. And Chase has been good. Shooting up like a weed. Almost a teenager already.”


The rest of the trip to the parking lot was filled with small chatter, mainly Marisol looking out the windows and holding up her phone to take pictures. Several times she leaned over onto Jorge, making a goofy face at her camera while Jorge just squinted his eyes and looked confused. She explained that a selfie was just a photograph that she would post onto the internet. That was rude. He didn’t give the internet his permission to use his likeness. But after assurances from Marisol that it was all safe and sound, he finally managed to take a couple pictures with a funny face.

In one of the he subtly flipped off the camera and made his niece promise to send that one to her mother. She would love that to be the first image she gets from a now Marisol-infested New York City.

When the tram came to a stop and both Jorge and Marisol were the only ones to get off at their location, he sighed as he climbed out of the vehicle, allowing his niece to take a few steps ahead of him. When she was effectively several feet away, Jorge winced, feeling that flood of sense returning to him. People in their nearby cars, pipes running beneath his feet, even someone’s bottle of water in a nearby car. Dammit...he was right. He smirked to his niece, catching up to her, and within stepping within a few feet of his her felt those senses dull and then vanish.

She was an adapted.

”Hey, wait up, kiddo,” he said as he caught up to her. Even after all these years, she still knew his black ‘67 Chevy Impala. ”You know, just because we occupy the same city, now, doesn’t mean you get to drive my car.”

Marisol was still dealing with the surreal nature of her day. She had been at her mother’s house hours earlier, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Her day was a blur of vehicles: her mother’s car taking her to the airplane taking her to a tram taking her to her uncle’s car. She felt like a modern-day nomad traveling until she found a place to claim as her own.

The almost empty tram gave Marisol a second to decompress and loosen from some of the tension she seemed to naturally build up on her body around crowds. She was starting to relax for the first time in hours, making her more susceptible to her uncle’s suggestion of pizza. The very word summoned a pang in her stomach calling out for food. The egg white omelet she had before leaving the house was a distant memory, and her layover in Chicago forced her to scurry around O’Hare on an empty stomach to get from one gate to another. ”Okay, okay! I don’t think I need the hard sell. Pizza sounds amazing, Tío.” After all, there was no such thing as a “New York Salad,” right?

It was nice to get updates on Jorge’s family, particularly when there was a wedding coming up. Marisol was thrilled that she would be attending her uncle’s wedding, and without the stress of traveling to and from California, she would be able to enjoy it well rested and unfrazzled. ”I can’t wait, Tío, really. I’ll even make sure to give the little guy a dance,” she said, chuckling, before she realized, ”Assuming the ‘little guy’ is even still shorter than me…” Marisol wanted to assume he would be, but some boys got hit with the puberty stick hard, and she was not exactly towering over most people.

The tram ride was a relaxed combination of chit chat and pictures she was taking for Speedigraph or Shuttertext. Her uncle snuck into one shot and compelled her to caption his rude photobomb with, “Greetings from New York!” It was a pleasant break from the fast pace of her day.

They reached the lot and it did not take long for Marisol to recognize the beauty that was her uncle’s prized car. He called her out as they got close, but she just shrugged. ”You sure, Tío? I have my license now. It could be a beautiful bonding experience,” she teased, knowing he would let her nowhere near the steering wheel while there was still breath in him.

>>”I can’t wait, Tío, really. I’ll even make sure to give the little guy a dance,” she said, chuckling, before she realized, ”Assuming the ‘little guy’ is even still shorter than me…”

Jorge had to laugh at that. While Chase was indeed growing like a weed, it was actually hard to tell if he and Marisol were even close to height yet. After all, this was his first time seeing his niece in person for years and she was taller than he last remembered. It would be a close call but given the fact that Marisol was seventeen and Chase was only twelve, he had an idea that she was going to have a few inches on him -- at least for now.

”I’m sure he’ll give you a run for your money,” he said with a laugh.

When they finally got off at the parking lot, it immediately came apparent to Jorge exactly what his niece was. As she bounded off after his car, he could feel his senses snapping back into place. And, upon stepping closer to her, he felt them fade away once again. There was no denying it at this point, his niece was an adapted. It was possible she was a mutant with abilities like that, but it seemed unlikely as it was essentially unprecedented. The smart money was on Marisol being an adapted -- but did she know?

Adapteds weren’t common knowledge, but had she even met many mutants when living out in the west coast? Mutants were everywhere but how many of them had Marisol knowingly interacted with? He couldn’t flat out ask her because if she didn’t know, that wouldn’t be the best way to approach it. Rather he needed to use to subtlety to inquire. Once he confirmed how much she did or didn’t know, then she was most certainly going to have to talk with Gemma.

Huh. It was strange. If anything he expected the x-gene to run in the family, not whatever it is that makes an adapted and adapted. It seemed that the Cervantes gene pool was fairly diverse.

>>”You sure, Tío? I have my license now. It could be a beautiful bonding experience.”

She was teasing him. She knew very well that few people were actually allowed to drive his car, especially this one as he painstakingly kept it maintained and ready to roll. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust other people it was just that...well...there was no way he was going to allow a seventeen year-old behind the wheel. Still, he had to admire her moxie. So he shook his head as he approached, his watery senses slipping away with every step until he was fully within whatever aura she gave off.

”Oh I’m sure it is. But you know the even more beautiful bonding experience is you bonding your little butt into the passenger seat.” He smirked as he took her bag. ”I’ll put this in the trunk.”

He unlocked the passenger side door for her and gestured for her to climb in. Once she was in, he closed the door, moved to the trunk and placed her luggage within. He left the large blue whale in her arms as the plush had been in a bag the whole trip up, so it deserved a chance to watch the scenery from his niece’s lap. The trunk slammed closed and Jorge moved back to the driver’s seat where he climbed in, put the key into the ignition and revved the vehicle to life.

His seat belt buckled into place, Jorge glanced over to ensure Marisol had done the same before he started to pull out. ”Alright. Well, Mari, let’s get you acquainted with your new home, shall we?”

Marisol was glad to know that her uncle seemed to believe, for the moment, she had a height advantage on her preteen cousin. She also begrudgingly accepted that, once puberty really struck, that advantage would wither away. It was one of the facts of life she had learned to accept, made easier to handle with the knowledge that she was maybe less than an inch from eclipsing her mother.

The young woman had been joking about taking her uncle’s car for a spin because she knew better. The man committed plenty of time, money, and love to keeping his classic vehicle in mint condition. She was fairly confident about her driving abilities, but being behind the wheel of Jorge’s pride and joy would give her far too much anxiety to actually enjoy her ride through her new home. Her bags were placed carefully in the trunk, allowing her to take a seat with nothing but her new whale friend on her lap.

She heard the sound of Jorge’s seatbelt buckle, reminding her to take the safety precaution herself. Her mind was obviously elsewhere. ”Yes, let’s! I’m ready to see what I’ve gotten myself into.”

Jorge pulled out of the lot and towards the city streets. Right away, Marisol noted that the crowded airport was not an anomaly, but rather a sign of things to come. The sidewalks were busy with people walking briskly from place to place. Businesses and food carts were everywhere. Marisol wondered how anyone stayed on a diet with so much food nearby. Maybe they balanced it out by walking around. From what Marisol knew, driving was not commonplace in New York City. People could walk to and from most places easily and they could get to a subway station or an Uber when something was out of reach. ”I don’t think I realized the big city was really so… big.” She knew the numbers and was aware that New York City was the most populated area in America, but watching it in action was intimidating. ”Really reminds me I’m just one in eight million,” she said introspectively. How many dancers were there in the city? Singers? Actresses? How much competition was she putting herself up against with her move?